Chapter 993: Blind Date
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
He had not come to Imperial Entertainment to be a nanny for the girl.
However, since this was a task handed by the Boss, he did not dare to neglect it.
The second day, when he entered the company to hold a high-level meeting, Pei Ziheng asked, “What happened to your nose?” Even though he had already taken off the plaster, the scar could still be seen.
Chu Chen did not dare to hide things from him. “Xiao Ling got angry and smashed something on me.”
All the executives sitting around him had different expressions. Some looked surprised, some looked investigatory, while some took delight in the disaster. Many people in the company were well aware of him working extremely hard for Xia Ling. Many of them were jealous of him for having such a cushy job. He needed only to serve Xia Ling well and, once Xia Ling spoke well of him in front of Pei Ziheng, what kind of riches and fortune could he not obtain? However, many looked down on him too. For a man to use this kind of method to reach the top seemed a little too dishonorable.
Pei Ziheng said lightly, “Oh.”
As if he had not seen the various expressions of the executives, he reassured Chu Chen. “She’s just like that, you have to excuse her. This girl even bit on my hand once when she flared up, I almost had to get stitches.”
Chu Chen knew that Boss was giving him a way out of an embarrassing situation.
That pampered girl dared to bite even Boss, so what if she had hit him? It was simply going easy on him!
The colleagues that had looked down on him quickly arranged their expressions. Chu Chen smiled at Boss as if nothing had happened. “I understand that Xiao Ling did not have bad intentions. Her straightforward personality actually makes her easy to get along with. Don’t worry.”
A few colleagues around him simply wanted to give him a big thumbs up. Goodness, he was really a brave warrior! In this whole universe, the only person who dared say that the spoilt missy Xia Ling was easy to get along with was probably Chu Chen! Which part of her was easy to get along with! Was his bootlicking not too obvious?!
The members raised their heads in anticipation, knowing that Boss Pei hated it most when his subordinates sucked up to him. This time, he would surely dislike Chu Chen for his bootlicking. However, contrary to their expectations, Pei Ziheng’s expression turned warmer. He nodded seriously and said, “She is very good.”
All of them were silent. “…”
What could they possibly say? What was there to say?!
There was nothing to say. They continued staring with envy and hatred at Chu Chen’s “Good Assignment”. They could only cry on one another’s shoulders.
A while after this episode had passed, Chu Chen received a thick stack of wads of consolation cash from Pei Ziheng. He also gave him a much wider scope of authority. He understood that this was Pei Ziheng’s way of compensating him for the hardships and negligence he had faced being with Xia Ling.
Xia Ling always thought that he was her friend, but he never forgot who he was serving with his life.
Thus, when she had been imprisoned and had put all her efforts and suffered many hardships to escape from that huge villa, he had been able to intercept her and return her back to Pei Ziheng without even batting an eyelid.
He had seen the despair in her eyes, her pale face written with disbelief. In that instant, her heart had broken, and she had been so deeply hurt. It had made him silent for a long time, and he had felt an ineffable throbbing pain. But it had only been for a tiny moment. He never regretted anything that he had done. It was precisely his seemingly cold-hearted decisions that had supported him to this day and enabled him to win so much power and authority. He was not a woman and did not have her good assets, and was thus unable to make use of the most primitive weapon to gain benefits from men. All he had was his own intelligence.
And his intelligence had told him that the wisest choice was to abandon Xia Ling and protect Pei Ziheng.
“Some people just can’t seem to recognize that they are simply just a toy. What love? Friendship? It’s laughable.” Chu Chen muttered to himself late at night in his luxurious apartment while sipping red wine.
The night wind blew gently. His mother pushed her wheelchair over to the balcony. “Ah Chen, are you unhappy?”
He was slightly shocked. “Why? I’m very happy today.” Yes, very happy, he was finally able to get away from the life of being Xia Ling’s nanny. From now on, he no longer had to receive orders from someone so arrogant and bossy—in this world, even Pei Ziheng’s words were warm and affectionate. It was as if he was bathing in a spring wind, and respect was given between words.
As long as there was no more Xia Ling, everything was fine.
His mother, however, could not put down her worry. “But you look a little upset.”
He smiled half-heartedly and made his worried mother leave. How could he be upset? How could someone like Xia Ling, so innocent and naive, make him upset? In this world, so what if her talent was good? She was not scheming and deceitful enough, and would only come to a dead, sorry end.
… Just like his father back then.
Chu Chen put down his glass. Suddenly, he did not have the mood to continue drinking.
His family took care of matters and made him go on blind dates. He was not young anymore and had yet to be in a relationship before. He had always delayed it by making excuses about how he was too busy. However, now that he was thirty-something-years-old, it could not be delayed anymore.
His mother had asked a favor from someone to send information about a few girls to him. “Look and pick one that you like. Those matchmakers were so proactive once they heard that it was you who I was searching for a partner for. They all said that with how successful you are, all the girls would definitely like you. Ah Chen, don’t be so picky. Our family isn’t that kind of big and grand family like that of President Pei’s. We don’t have the aspiration to marry some virtuous rich daughter from a prestigious family. I will be satisfied to see you marry a woman who knows how to live well and endure hardships.”
Chu Chen smiled at his mother.
After witnessing the “love” that Xia Ling and Pei Ziheng had had for the past ten years, he felt deeply that it was such an illusory and fragile thing. Even the two of them were unable to last long, what could he possibly hope for? He took the pictures from his mother and looked through them one by one. Suddenly, he saw a girl wearing a simple dress that looked slightly familiar.
“This…”
“The daughter of your brother-in-law, Chu Yingying,” Chu Chen’s mother said. “This lady is also very pitiful. She met with an accident when she was ten and required blood donation. It was then that they found out she was not the birth child of your brother-in-law. This enraged him and he divorced his wife, who then remarried. She is called Li Yingying now. She is now 29 and has not yet married, so her family is extremely anxious. They keep sending her to blind dates. The matchmaker has said that this girl’s personality is not bad, so she has introduced her.”
She was no blood relation and was not part of their family anymore. There was nothing inappropriate about that.
Chu Chen stared at the photograph and thought back about how he had gone to find his brother-in-law at the age of twenty to borrow money. The little girl had been wearing a pink dress. Under the crystal lights, she had looked just like a princess from a fairytale. While caressing her pet dog, she had been feeding him with leftover bones. [Brother looks so pitiful, I’ll give this bone to you to eat.]
He had observed everything in detail.
Even until today, the same sensation of a needle sticking into him could be felt.
He made an appointment with Li Yingying to meet in a high-class coffee shop. The private room was quiet, and the music was gentle.
He had reached first, and stared through the glass one-sided window as the girl came in from outside. She wore what looked like a dress on offer during sale season in supermarkets. An unbranded bag was slung over her shoulder. Uncomfortable, she had followed the immaculately dressed waiter to the private room where Chu Chen was waiting.